Saturday, April 20, 2013

New post on Diane Ravitch's blog

The Tennessee legislature failed to pass the bill to gut local control. Greats Academy will not be able to open in the most affluent section of Nashville. Not this year. ALEC legislation failed. Charters unhappy. Angry moms prevail.

An informed public will not sell or give away public education.

My two cents:

You don’t have to be an opponent of charter schools to recognize this as a sensible refusal to dive deeper into idiocy. What is odd to me is the “big brother” aspect of this — local districts can’t make reasoned decisions about charter schools and therefore have to be overruled by state officials who know better? Charter schools can be — and in a very few instances have been — crucibles of innovation. Turning to them can invigorate public school practice, particularly when they are in the hands of seasoned educators who recognize the limits, misdirections and political constraints of the public school establishment. But pretending that simply being a charter school is a formula for success is silly as a presumption and countered by data. Those closest to the impacts and costs can be trusted to make sensible decisions. And MNPS board and admin made a sensible decision in the case of Great Hearts.My colleague (at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University) on this turn of events:"No authorizer. No voucher. No parent trigger. No private charters. All around, a very good session ending"So now let's turn to encouraging parents to "opt out" of testing for their children wherever the law offers that possibility. If you are a parent in a state where the only "opt out" is for religious reasons, I suggest that you claim a religious belief in human potential (supported I'd say by all the faiths of "the book" -- Judaism, Christianity, Islam at a minimum). Clearly, the current standards and testing regime violates the development of human potential.

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Social Issues is a blog maintained by the John Dewey Society's Commission on Social Issues.

The Commission exists to encourage reflection on pressing social, cultural and educational issues and to support communications among members of the John Dewey Society and concerned publics on these issues.